Orlando video-game developer powers down

Nearly 70 people were laid off Friday

Orlando-based video-game developer n-Space laid off most of its staff — nearly 70 employees — on Friday, but is still hoping to make a comeback.

The company's president and co-founder, Dan O'Leary, said Monday that he and his team are working hard to secure more deals.

"We will be back," he said.

The decision to scale down operations came after a deal fell through at the last minute, and no other commitments were cemented last week. That, combined with changes in the video-game world and the poor economy, left him with no choice.

"Life as an independent-game developer is often a hand-to-mouth effort," he said.

The company was created in 1994 and developed games for some of the industry's big names, such as Activision, Disney Interactive and Nintendo, according to its website.

By the end of this year, n-Space will have released 34 titles, including Call of Duty on Nintendo DS and Hannah Montana on Nintendo Wii and DS, XBOX 360 and PlayStation 3.

O'Leary said n-Space has been struggling to stay afloat for months. This summer, it had to lay off 15 workers.

"The games industry is, frankly, a mess," O'Leary wrote Saturday on the company's blog. "The economy has robbed customers of disposable income, reducing the number of titles that purchased per year. Huge budget titles have to sell massive numbers to return a profit and the App Store has disrupted our industry in the same way iTunes changed consumer expectations for music."

The news comes the same year n-Space has seven games released, such as Toy Story 3 on Nintendo DS and TRON: Evolution on Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS.

"Since 2008 the n-Space family has faced and overcome a number of tremendous challenges, and it seems our work is not yet done," he wrote on the blog. "Through it all, the entire n-Space crew has demonstrated a level of professionalism and support that is beyond compare."

Sarah Lundy can be reached at slundy@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-6218. Follow her on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/OSsarahlundy or read http://www.orlandosentinel.com/techblog.